The Most Exciting Electric Car You’ll Never Hear

May 16, 2014
Story By
John Brooks

Tales From Garage 56 | The Nissan ZEOD RC

You may have already heard of the zero-emissions, silent Nissan ZEOD race car, but chances are you've missed details and a full perspective of it's place in racing. Motorsports is going through a revolution right now - at least in Europe. While much of the squabble is about noise, or lack thereof - the more important story lies in new rules and the role they play in technological advancement. Endurance Racing, in the shape of the FIA World Endurance Championship and the world's greatest race, Les Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans, is at the vanguard of this technological movement. Put in its simplest form, Audi, Porsche and Toyota are going to be lapping faster than last year in their pursuit of victory, and using 25% less fuel doing so. "How?", I hear you ask. Well that and other questions will be answered in the coming weeks as I look at the run up to Le Mans in more detail. If you cannot wait that long DrivingLine has been running a series of videos produced to explain the rule changes for 2014. The latest can bee seen HERE.

With the rulebook governing everything that goes on in this world, even this technological progress must fit within it's scope. Rules are something that all the manufacturers have a hand in drafting, and two years ago the clever chaps on the Organising Committee of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest came up with a "no rules" concept for one car per year. This is commonly known as Garage 56 and is allocated to experimental cars running new technology. The first year of this experiment was a great success as Nissan brought along their DeltaWing concept, promoting lightweight cars in competition. The project wowed everyone - till it was rudely knocked off the track early in the race, forcing it into retirement. In 2013 the highly ambitious GreenGT H2 hydrogen project was given Garage 56 status. Unfortunately the car was pulled from the event as it was clearly not up to the rigours of the 24 hours, doubts about the extent of the development of the technology and the funding of the programme meant that no one was really surprised.

For 2014 Nissan have stepped back up to the plate with a truly experimental concept, the ZEOD (Zero Emissions On Demand). At first glance it would appear to be DeltaWing mark two, but while there are some similarities in the overall concept it is a completely different car. New chassis, completely revised aerodynamics, a cockpit that is fully compliant with the 2014 LM P1 cockpit rules and a brand new engine and transmission. The original DeltaWing car was based on the homologated chassis from the defunct Aston Martin AMR-One, mainly to shortcut the time taken to get the nod from the FIA on safety grounds as it had already been crash tested and approved. This however led to compromises on the aerodynamics, particularly in relation to downforce. So for the ZEOD a completely new tub was designed in house and built by the German company, Adess.

One factor common to the two projects is the designer, Ben Bowlby. Here he is seen at the ZEOD launch in a not-embarrassing-at-all pose with Darren Cox (Head of Nissan Motorsport) on the left, with Shoichi Miyatani (President of NISMO) and long time Nissan factory driver, Michael Krumm on the right.

There were initially suggestions that the car would run the whole race on electric power, thus generating zero emissions, but this was clearly impossible given the current state of battery technology. The aim now is to run 14 lap stints at the 2014 Le Mans 24 Hours with a target lap time of under four minutes. In addition, one of those laps in each stint is to be entirely powered by the energy recovered from the rear brakes and stored in the car's battery. The plan includes a small capacity engine along with two electric motors to power the vehicle - but this is a hugely difficult engineering task. The whole project has become one of maximising efficiency and extracting the maximum performance in every aspect of the car.

As ZEOD designer Ben Bowlby puts it, "The Nissan ZEOD RC will utilise technology never before seen at Le Mans and will provide a unique experience for the fans. To see the car go down the Mulsanne Straight at 300km/h in virtual silence will be unique. Developing the battery technology to incorporate this into a Le Mans prototype is an enormous challenge, but the lessons learnt will not only be very beneficial for the future LM P1 program, but also we can use this information to assist in the development of future versions of the Nissan LEAF and other electric vehicles for the road."

The link between this experiment and the real world cars we will drive in the future is at the heart of this project. Indeed this is the main purpose of the new LM P1 rules that encourage the maximising of efficiency in using all the energy produced by the vehicle. Shoichi Miyatani commented. "The ZEOD RC utilizes our technology gained through the development of the Nissan LEAF Nismo RC, the first EV racer based on the mass production zero emission vehicle. The LEAF RC's energy management and efficient energy recovery system that is suitable for racing are just examples. We believe these technologies serve as important steps for using EV for motor sports."

The project's development is being undertaken at the Ray Mallock Limited (RML) facility in the heart of the UK's motorsport belt, with close support from NISMO in Japan, particularly in area of the electric drive train. I was fortunate to visit RML recently and caught up with the exciting developments that have taken this concept to reality.

This is Arnaud Martin, RML's Director of Powertrain, holding the ZEOD's engine, a turbocharged 1.5 litre, 3 cylinder engine with direct injection - a graphic illustration of just how light this unit is. With turbo and exhaust it weighs 46kg, around half the weight of the DeltaWing engine. It produces around 400bhp which, given the extreme measures taken to shed weight all the way through the car, will deliver the performance required to achieve the target lap time.

Weight saving is a feature of all of the engine components, block, crankshaft and even electronics.

The development team were given almost impossible weight targets as they had to compensate for the two e-motors, the large battery and the transmission. Factor in the need to make the unit extremely fuel efficient to further reduce the amount of fuel to be carried and the decision to build a unit in this unusual configuration makes sense.

The fact that the car will run under battery power for one lap per stint brings a number of issues, particularly in cooling and warming up the engine - and this has been one of the trickiest parts of the project.

Another problem encountered with three cylinder engines is that of vibration. The battery is insulated against those vibrations, being not rigidly mounted in the chassis. So far in testing the vibrations have not proved to be an issue for concern.

MoTeC provides a single ECU that controls the electronics. RML have written the code in house with the ECU controling the engine, EV systems (e-motor controller and battery) as well as the automatic brake balance and differential systems. It is this sort of ground-breaking research that will translate into efficiencies in future road car technology.

A partnership with Total has led to the French company developing lubricants for all aspects of the car, especially in the powertrain - reducing friction and increasing efficiency.

So much for all the technical talk, how does it drive? One of the trio of drivers entered at Le Mans, Lucas Ordóñez, gives us his perspective. Some of you may remember that we looked at Lucas' rise through the Nissan GT Academy programme back HERE. "There are so many things that are different about this car. Even the seating position is very different. Normally in a prototype the underside of the cockpit is raised to promote airflow under and through the front of the car, but for the ZEOD your feet are more level with the floor. You are still reclined like a regular prototype, but your feet position is more like a GT car. There are also a lot of systems and procedures that the drivers have to learn. It was interesting to learn more last week not only what switches to change and when, but also exactly what they do. Nissan is a global leader in electric vehicles for the road, but the amount of energy required to get this car around Le Mans at speeds faster than a GT car is incredible."

"We know this is not going to be easy at all but that is why we are doing it. Everyone on the team is learning all the time and the lessons to come out of this will play an important role in both our race programs in the future and also for road cars. This really is pushing the boundaries. We've had our share of issues during the development process but if it was easy, then everyone would be trying this. This is not like just buying an LM P2 car and going racing. There is no past data to fall back on, no past experience - everything about this program is a new learning experience for the drivers, the mechanics, the engineers and the design team. It is actually really rewarding to be a part of the program and I can't wait to silently glide down the Mulsanne - that is going to be quite an experience."

The amount of effort and hard work that has gone into translating this dream into a reality is insane, even by motorsport's standards. RML have proved why they are regarded as leaders in this sort of project implementation. Perhaps the final word should lie with Darren Cox, Nissan's Global Motorsport Director, "Our engine team has done a truly remarkable job with the internal combustion engine. We knew the electric component of the Nissan ZEOD RC was certainly going to turn heads at Le Mans, but our combined zero emission on demand electric/petrol power plant is quite a stunning piece of engineering. Nissan will become the first major manufacturer to use a three-cylinder engine in major international motorsport. We are aiming to maintain our position as industry leaders in focusing on downsizing. Lessons learned from the development of the engine will be seen in Nissan road cars of the future. Our aim is to set new standards in efficiency in regards to every aspect of the car - power train, aerodynamics and handling. For the power train we have worked closely with the team at Total to not only reduce friction inside the engine, but within all components of the power train. Friction is the enemy of horsepower and tackling that has been one of the efficiency targets we have concentrated on heavily." It is now just over a month till the Nissan ZEOD RC will take the start flag at the Le Mans 24 Hours. We will all be watching its progress with interest and DrivingLine will be there to continue this story. (Photography courtesy of Nissan Motorsport and the author)

The Most Exciting Electric Car You’ll Never Hear

Tales From Garage 56 | The Nissan ZEOD RC

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